‘UnPHILtered’: MLB Commissioner floats ‘ridiculous’ batting rule change

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Have you heard about the latest possible rule change that could be coming to Major League Baseball?

Let me preface this by saying that I am not against tweaking baseball in order for it to attract a larger audience – the NFL makes rule changes all the time and the ratings continue to grow.

I was a proponent of the pitch clock because I felt the games were too long and it would eventually cause fans to slowly stop watching but this latest rule change proposal is simply awful.

According to MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, it would be called the “golden at-bat.”

The idea is simple: Once a game, a team manager will get to put their best batter at the plate regardless of where the batting order stands. Manfred floated the idea during an interview on the podcast “The Varsity.”

“There was a little buzz around it at an owners’ meeting — was the idea of a ‘golden at-bat’ — that is putting your best player out there out of order at a particular point in the game,” Manfred said. “That rule and things like that are in the conversation-only stage.”

The idea has come under fire from both past and present players.

“No, no, no,” Los Angeles Dodgers star Freddie Freeman told MLB writer Jason Stark. “I’m old-school, you know, even as a young guy. I like baseball. I’m a baseball purist. So I’m gonna go no”

Hall of Fame pitcher Roger Clemens took to X to voice his opinion: “This can’t be real.”

The reaction has not been kind, but to be fair, Manfred never said this was happening. Fingers crossed that he has a change of mind.

Again, as a baseball guy, I’m all for growing the game and if making some changes to do that is needed then so be it but this one is just ridiculous.